


First Fantasy NaNoWriMo: 6: The Inevitable Coffee Shop AU

by SkiesOverTokyo



Series: FirstFan NaNoWriMo Drabbles [6]
Category: First Fantasy (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, Fluff, GRATUITOUS REFERENCES TO THE WORK OF QUEEN, Music, Music Nerds, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, YOU KNEW A COFFEE SHOP AU WAS INEVITABLE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-19 23:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16544357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkiesOverTokyo/pseuds/SkiesOverTokyo
Summary: You all knew this was coming. It's a FirstFan Coffee Shop AU. Go figure.





	First Fantasy NaNoWriMo: 6: The Inevitable Coffee Shop AU

“Next please?”  
I stepped over to the counter, put the briefcase down, and ran a hand through my hair, irritated that I’d left my umbrella at home, despite the forecast. Fortunately, my early meeting had cancelled whilst I’d been on the metro, and I’d taken this as a chance to find somewhere to dry out, have a cup of coffee, and relax for an hour or so, a few minutes’ walk from the office. I’d found this coffee shop tucked between two bakeries with which it seemed to share a communal seating space, a few months before when trying to find somewhere to take a hungry business client, and instantly taken a shine to it.  
  
For one, despite the proximity to a large number of offices, it never truly got crowded, secondly it was proudly independent, and I always found with that came a certain pride, and a certain quality absent from the big chain coffee shops. Finally, it was warm and cosy during the winter, and pleasantly cool and shady during the summer, had a pleasant ambience, nice food, and, that commonality to all restaurants these days, free wi-fi. The staff were also extremely pleasant, though I didn’t recognise the young man on the other side of the counter this time. A small name badge on a baggy faded black _Ride the Lightning_ t-shirt read, simply, _Tam_. A mess of dark brown hair, falling into dark, piercing eyes, short on one side, hanging long on the other. Pale, young features, making it hard to exactly age him, a cute nose…  
  
“Morning”  
I grinned at the boy, who, to my relief, despite his slightly foreboding attire, grinned back. Ah. I seemed to have misjudged him.  
“Uh, let’s see…”  
I scanned the list. The other nice thing about this coffee shop was that, under the command of its owner, it tended to swap its product range around every so often, with a flexibility a chain could not possibly have done in such a short time, thus keeping things fresh and interesting for its regular clients such as myself. I’d occasionally, over dinner with my boyfriend, entertained the idea that I eventually packed it in at the company I worked at and helped the owner of this particular shop expand out to…well, at least a couple of sites across the town…  
  
I realised I’d been staring at the young man, and hurriedly made my mind up.  
“Ah, maple latte, skimmed, whipped cream. If you have any of the sprinkles left from the pecan salted latte from a coupl-“  
He was already holding up the shaker.  
“Those ones?”  
“Y-Yes.”  
He nodded, turned, and began making my drink. I’d expected him to call for the next order, but, it seemed eight thirty in the morning on a rather rainy Thursday was a little early for many people to sally forth in search of caffeinated beverages. I checked my phone, for lack of something else to do. No emails, a couple of office-wide emails about upcoming visits by people from regional branches, a couple of upcoming birthdays within my team, security reminding people about carrying passes. Checked the news to find precious little going on above the background turn of the world, the usual misery and death, and the ineptitude of power. Our President making a fool of himself in front of the world, his eldest son caught drink-driving. Nothing on Crystallise, the main social media platform, or on Crowsflight…  
  
The drink arrived in front of me just as I put my phone away again, and with it, the young man, a mug of something that smelt like cinnamon in his slender hands. There was something, I had to confess, annoyingly pretty about him. Another thing I had to admit, I thought, as I leaned against the bar, before giving up, and drawing up a seat to work at, was that you could actually talk to the staff here.  
  
“Uh, so I’ve not seen you before.”  
“You probably wouldn’t have.”  
“You’re new? You seem a bit too skilled to be new, no offence. I’m Nura.”  
A smile between sips of coffee.  
“ Tam. I’ve worked here since we opened four years ago. I tend to do the evening shifts, when it’s busier here. Packed sometimes…still the same kind of crowd, except for music nights”  
Huh. I knew the place opened till late, but had often assumed that this was largely to cater for office workers, though now I recalled it, I had occasionally heard music coming across the street on the way back to the station…  
  
“But you’re doing the morning shift today because…”  
“You know Syl, I assume?”  
I nodded. A tall haired girl with half-rim glasses, an excellent taste in clothing, a slightly hippie-ish sensibility that I would have found annoying in a less intelligent, less charming person, but found a necessary, not to mention, interesting topic of discussion.  
“We’re…”  
_Friends?_ Is one friends with their regular barista? I wasn’t sure  
“We talk a fair bit in the mornings, and when I bring clients in.”  
“Ah. We’re flatmates. Have been for nearly a decade.”  
  
_A decade? This boy was even more babyfaced than I’d realised._  
“How old are you if you don’t mind me asking?”  
“Twenty six.”  
“Huh.”  
I felt the conversation ebb a little  
“So, you like it here?”  
“It’s a steady wage, I get to listen to some pretty good music most weeks, it fits around my course, and my social life pretty well. Plus, the boss is nice, and I like coffee.”  
Another grin.   
“How about you? What do you do?”  
I briefly outlined the main elements of my job, my responsibility as the head of an entire division of a game importing and translating company. Well, in my case, nothing as exciting as getting to translate, restricted instead to the mechanics of getting several hundred thousand blank discs or cartridges, from point a to point b, the game loaded onto them, the quality checking, packing, and transportation of games from a colossal warehouse an hour out of the city…and so on.  
  
He seemed impressed by this, and started on about a video game series I vaguely remember being involved with about three or four years ago-and moreover, irritated at the shade of green that a certain prominent character on the box art had to be, and how difficult it was to get this colour just so. I found myself staring again, and hurriedly changed the subject, reminding myself that, despite the open relationship I shared with Arif, romantic entanglements with your barista, even one as nice as this, were a sure-fire way to making sure I never darkened this rather welcoming coffee shop again.  
I sipped my coffee in quiet contemplation whilst he cleaned a couple of cups, and brewed himself another coffee, before posing another question  
  
“You like music?”  
“Oh, man. Yes. Absolutely. I’ve always wanted to be in a band, but eh, my tastes are a little extreme, and I tend to be a bit of a loner in that respect….”  
“Oh? Try me. I worked for a metal label before the current job.”  
“Well…”  
He reeled off a list of favourite bands of his that I had to agree were not the kind of thing that I’d actively listen to, or indeed inflict upon the uninitiated,though couldn’t help but grin as he concluded with   
“Oh, and Queen”.  
“Oh, obviously Queen. Though I prefer _Night at the Opera_ and _Day at the Races_ to any of the stuff before or after...call me a casual fan, but…”  
“Really? C’mon man, _Queen II_ is a classic…”  
  
I was about to answer something about _Queen II_ being too progressive rock for my tastes when my mobile rang, and I sighed, picking it up. Work-my nine AM had turned up early, and was keen to get started, since he had tickets to some baseball game later. I sighed, downed the rest of the cup,

“No rest for the wicked.”  
“Heh. Listen, uh. The music thing…it’s every Friday evening. Uh, free entry. And hey, if the stuff’s not your thing, I’m here, so…I can tell you why _Queen II_ is so much better than _A Day at the Races._ ”  
He shrugged.  
Either way, your choice. I’ll tell Syl you said hi. She should be back in tomorrow.”  
I nodded.  
“Oh…if you want to borrow an umbrella...since it’s still raining...I’m pretty sure I’ve got a couple out the back…”  
  
A few minutes later, I reached work under a borrowed umbrella, now perfectly dry, found my nine AM enthusing over the spinball of one of the local team’s pitcher with my deputy, and quickly got down to business. Despite this, I found myself a little distracted towards the end of the meeting, despite its smoothness, and excused myself from the lunch my colleagues were having with him, ringing my secretary three floors belong  
“Eliza?”  
“Yes, Mr Hnifur?”  
“Eliza, first name. Sheesh, it’s not school”  
“Sorry, _Nura_. What can I do for you, _Nura?_ ”  
I smiled, and despite me, the question I wanted to ask made me rather excited, even though I knew the answer to the question.  
“What’s my diary like for Friday afternoon?”  
“Nura…let’s see…uh…empty past four PM. Why do you ask?”  
“I’m booking it off.”  
“Ah, something nice with Arif?”  
“Well…kinda. Him and a friend or two.”  
“Sure.”  
“Oh, Eliza, one other question.”  
  
A pause on the other end of the line, as Eliza doubtless got herself a postit note pad.  
“Sure, Nura.”  
“Can you buy me, when you go out for lunch, a new umbrella? I had to borrow this one from a friend.”  
A sigh, from the other end of the line.  
“What are you like, Nura?”  
“A man who takes his boyfriend to see bands he’s never seen at a coffee shop he didn’t know opened that late, on the advice of someone he met this morning. Why?”  
“Oh, no reason. That sounds typical you, though.”  
I hung up, and returned to the lunch with a spring in my step, humming to myself.


End file.
